Dalek Painter Consulted for Radiohead's Latest Album Cover

There’s a real possibility that the Doctor drove a Dalek so far away from its “ex-term-in-ate”ing ways that the mutant cyborg actually became an artist. Maybe this wayward Dalek thought it was better to turn its plunger and death-ray into paintbrushes than go against the Doctor one more time.

Stanley Donwood, a creative collaborator with international rock sensation Radiohead, revealed in a recent interview that Radiohead originally wanted a Dalek from Doctor Who to create the cover art for its latest album, A Moon Shaped Pool, which was released in May 2016.

“I had this idea of a painting Dalek that instead of exterminating people would squirt paint,” Donwood said. “But unfortunately our technical skills weren’t up to the job of constructing a Dalek.”

So, sadly, a Dalek’s dreams were dashed before they could even take off. Instead, Radiohead and Donwood went with a trippy black-and-white brainchild of the elements. They splattered paint on white canvas, put the canvas outside, and then waited for nature to take its course.

What resulted was A Moon Shaped Pool’s elemental cover art. The band is now confirmed as headlining at 2017’s Coachella, so maybe not going with the Dalek art turned out to be a good thing.

The Doctor and Clara with Rusty in the episode "Into the Dalek."

Evidence for a changed Dalek comes in the form of Rusty, the Doctor and Clara’s venture into the mind of a “moral Dalek.” If things had worked out for Rusty in “Into the Dalek,” he might have ended up being a fantastic artist. He certainly had the tortured temperament so stereotypical of artists.